Military News

Saturday, October 31, 2015

FORT HOOD, Texas, October 29, 2015 — Today, almost
everything is on the Internet, and mobile devices place that immense collection
of knowledge in the palms of our hands.

But not everything is online -- or at least much of it isn’t
readily accessible -- so one noncommissioned officer is using the power of the
Internet to help soldiers.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Ronnie Russell, mortar platoon sergeant
with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry
Regiment, develops mobile applications to provide troops and their families
with tools to help them navigate their duty stations and surrounding
communities.

About 15 years ago, while stationed in South Korea, Russell
struggled to get from one place to another in the foreign country. It was an
irritating reality that Russell said he just became accustomed to over time.
Russell recalled that experience when he returned to South Korea last year with
the Charger Battalion for a rotational deployment. He was shocked, he said,
that there were still very few resources to help soldiers navigate the local
area.

“There was nothing being done about it, except through each
area’s publication, so I didn’t like that,” said Russell, a Fayetteville, North
Carolina, native. “So I said, ‘Let me try making an app.’ The app was really
for my soldiers, because they were new. Korea was not new to me.”

After getting the runaround from a couple of mobile
application developers, Russell said, he took matters into his own hands.

“I was like, ‘Well, I’ll teach myself,’ so I went on
Google,” he said. “I tell people now, ‘I went to Google University, and my
professor’s name was YouTube.’ That is who taught me.”

One-Stop Shop

The app, called Penn Around, serves as a mobile one-stop
shop stocked with all the resources a soldier assigned to South Korea might
need. Penn Around consolidates a variety of information under one umbrella,
Russell said.

“When the app first started, it started small,” said Army
Sgt. Melvin Dizon, fire direction computer check assigned to Headquarters and
Headquarters Company, 1-12 Cav. “It was basically the bus schedules of all the
camps. That helped, since being 1-12, we weren’t from Korea. It was the best
thing that was out at the time to help soldiers who were transitioning figure
out where to go.”

Inside the roughly 13-megabyte file are resources ranging
from bus schedules and military lodging information to MyPay, taxis and
exchange vendors.

And the response has been positive.

The app has more than 5,000 downloads and an average rating
of 4.4 stars out of 5. “Very convenient app,” one reviewer wrote. “It provides
access to all the bus schedules as well as keeps me up to date with what’s
going on.”

Dizon said that Russell put care, thought and the concerns
of his soldiers into the development of this resource.

“Sergeant Russell approached each member of our platoon,
because he said he was going to start an app to help soldiers transition and
get around Korea,” Dizon said. “He took ideas from every soldier in our
platoon, so whatever ideas we first pitched to him, he added that to the
initial app when it first came out. Ever since then, it actually evolved. Now
it has the SHARP program on it. It has the movie times. Whatever you needed as
a soldier out there, it eventually ended up on the app.”

Off-Duty Time

Russell spent a lot of his off-duty time ensuring he was
going through all the right channels and getting permission from all the right
people at every step of the way -- a lot of work for a noncommissioned officer
who simply wanted to help his soldiers learn how to traverse the Korean
Peninsula.

Russell’s concern for the welfare of others didn’t stop
there.

The single father sought information about safe
neighborhoods in which to rear his son. This quest for knowledge grew into “Tx
Corral,” another mobile app that serves as a tool to keep citizens informed of
what’s going on in their neighborhood and in neighboring towns.

It taps into the social media feeds of various law
enforcement agencies and provides access to services that contact nearby cab
companies and tow trucks using the GPS location from the user’s phone.

Russell dedicated a lot of time to traveling throughout
Central Texas to obtain permission from the various agencies involved to use
their information.

Having tackled Central Texas and the Land of the Morning
Calm, Russell is currently working on prototype apps for U.S. Pacific Command
and U.S. Army Japan.

In all of the programs he is working on, Russell said, he
considers what is important and relevant to the soldiers at that specific assignment.
What is a priority for soldiers in Hawaii isn’t necessarily what’s important to
soldiers in South Korea, and vice versa, he explained.

As the apps are all free to download, there is no monetary
gain for Russell. But he does get the satisfaction of knowing he may have
helped a soldier answer the same questions he once had.

10/28/2015 - JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. -- Driving
on a military installation isn't a privilege many receive, and until
recently, if a civilian or military motorist waspulled over for a
driving infraction, the ticket was taken to the violator's first
sergeant for repercussions. Now, civilian ticketed motorists will have
to answer to a federal magistrate.

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 633rd Security Forces Squadron
recently spent a week working side-by-side with the Hampton Police
Division to obtain their Virginia state radar certification.

"This is significant for [SFS] because it's one of the duties of law
enforcement," said Sgt. Pelham Felder, Hampton PD Homeland Security unit
supervisor. "It gives them the training and experience so they can go
out and be more efficient as far as traffic safety and enforcement."

During the 16-hour classroom portion of the certification, SFS personnel
spent time learning Doppler Theory and principles before practical
testing, where they became proficient at setting up and testing the
radars. Once it was time to apply what was taught, the Airmen could
visually estimate the speed of a vehicle.

According to Senior Airman Sean Lennon, 633rd SFS Base Defense
Operations Center controller, while SFS personnel have used radars in
the past, they didn't have the Virginia State certification required to
issue speeding tickets to civilian motorist.

"Now we have the authority to write speeding tickets to civilian
personnel and actually have that individual appear in federal magistrate
court, along with the ticketing officer," said Lennon. "For uniformed
members, it's more of a base charge. Once they have a certain amount of
points they can be denied base driving privileges."

With the radar certifications, SFS personnel and Hampton PD hope this
will encourage drivers on the installation to slow down and abide by the
traffic laws.

"Hopefully this causes people to slow down. I'm sure people see a lot of
people speeding, especially when they are leaving base after work,"
said Lennon. "Hopefully they realize it's not the most important thing
to get off base two minutes early."

During his third visit to the Asia-Pacific in eight months,
the secretary will meet with leaders from more than a dozen nations across East
Asia and South Asia to help advance the next phase of the U.S. military’s
rebalance in the region by modernizing longtime alliances and building new
partnerships, DoD officials said.

The secretary also will deliver the keynote address at the
3rd annual Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Library in Simi Valley, California, before returning to Washington.

The forum brings together leaders and key stakeholders in
the defense community, including members of Congress and civilian and military
leaders from the Defense Department and industry to address national defense
health and encourage discussions that promote policies to strengthen the U.S.
military, according to the forum’s web site.

10/28/2015 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- We
recognized Air Force Research Laboratory's top scientists and engineers
on Oct. 22 during the AFRL Fellows and Early Career Awards banquet. It
was a spectacular event.

We inducted seven senior researchers as AFRL Fellows, our most
prestigious honor, representing the top 0.2 percent of our professional
technical workforce. Another five S&Es were presented awards for
truly exceptional leadership potential and research contributions early
in their careers.

They were spotlighted from among a small, diverse and highly talented
workforce of 3,511 engineers and scientists, who are charged with
providing our nation's Air Force with revolutionary, relevant and
responsive capabilities. It's an awesome responsibility and our efforts
focus on all three domains of air, space and cyber.

The fact that both Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, Air Force Materiel Command
commander, and Dr. Greg Zacharias, Chief Scientist of the Air Force,
joined in honoring these men and women underscores senior Air Force
leaders appreciate what AFRL brings to the table. AFRL is the global
technology integrator that brings agile, innovative and trusted value to
the U.S. Air Force.

In September, I attended the Air Force Association Air and Space
Conference, where the theme was "Reinvent the Aerospace Nation." Leaders
clearly emphasized we cannot do that without great people. Our senior
leaders understand that the people are the platform for which innovative
ideas, strategies, and technologies are delivered to the fight. The
people, along with innovation and technology will remain the pillars of
the American strength and its determination.

AFRL people are at the foundation of every Air Force weapon system
currently fielded and on the horizon. They absolutely are a national
asset. Collectively, AFRL people are the lens that focuses the national
technical base on Air Force needs, to provide tomorrow's warfighters
with an unfair advantage.

Working closely with our industry, academic, international and other
government agency partners, AFRL people fulfill the critical leadership
role of turning science into warfighting capabilities.

I frequently get asked what's the next big thing ... What's on the
horizon? My answer is always the revolutionary game-changers which AFRL
and others are focusing on: hypersonics; directed energy; autonomy;
nanotechnology; and unmanned Systems. But, we are also charged with
thinking about the next game-changers, technologies like: quantum
technologies, additive manufacturing and synthetic biology. This mix of
game-changing research will continue to evolve and revolutionize how we
fight in the future.

However our contributions to leverage science and technology to enhance
the capabilities of today's warfighters and to rapidly respond with
solutions to the urgent "We need this now" problems are equally
important. Our research supports all service core functions and major
commands by addressing prioritized capability gaps.

It's true that focused science and technology investment has given the
U.S. a qualitative military advantage. Our peers and adversaries had
decades to study the American way of war. So it should come as no
surprise they're investing heavily in their own technology, and they are
catching up fast. Our technical dominance is no longer assured. The
work by AFRL people to prevent technological surprise and to deliver
agile capabilities is more important now than ever.

From advanced turbine engines, to human performance augmentation, to
advanced space situational awareness, AFRL people are at the cutting
edge, focused on providing America's Airmen the best technology at the
right time. We owe them a debt of gratitude. I could not be more proud
to serve as their commander.

10/28/2015 - SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Service
members from Schriever Air Force Base and other military installations
around Colorado Springs volunteered as mentors at a National Suicide
Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp Oct. 10 - 11, 2015, at the Cheyenne
Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The camp was hosted and sponsored by Tragedy Assistance Program for
Survivors, a not-for-profit organization that has held grief counseling
camps across the nation for more than a decade.

According to their website, http://www.taps.org/about,
"The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors offers compassionate care
to all those grieving the death of a loved one serving in our Armed
Forces. Since 1994, TAPS has provided comfort and hope 24 hours a day,
seven days a week through a national peer support network and connection
to grief resources, all at no cost to surviving families and loved
ones."

TAPS is a national organization that was started to help family members
in the grieving process. Bonnie Carroll, TAPS president and founder, was
the wife of Brig. Gen. Tom Carroll, who passed away in an Army C-12
plane crash in 1992. Following his death, she was unsatisfied with the
resources available to assist those in her same situation.

TAPS became a way for families to get together for counseling and
support through the loss of a loved one in the armed forces. Master Sgt.
Steven Grant, 50th Space Communications Squadron section chief of
network infrastructure, attended the event for the second year in a row.

Grant explained why supporting children at the Good Grief Camps is so important.

"The kids experience not only a loss in their family, but they also
experience a kind of identity crisis, because they're no longer military
affiliated," explained Grant. "What TAPS gives them is an opportunity
to get with other kids in their same position, open up to some of the
grieving process and by tying in military members, it kind of gives them
[back] that connection to their loved one."

At the beginning of the weekend-long camp, parents and adult family
members dropped off their children with the mentors before heading to
their own peer counseling activities. The early portions of the
activities were in a very relaxed social environment. Kids in attendance
were not forced to interact, but instead given freedom to talk/play
with their mentors as they felt comfortable.

"We went over each child's information sheet prior to the actual event
and mine said she was very shy," said Staff Sgt. Taylor Koch, 50th Space
Wing administrative assistant and Good Grief Camp mentor. "I was
thankful to know what to anticipate. She took about 10 minutes to warm
up but once she did she didn't leave my side."

Throughout the weekend, kids attending the camp participated in activities and games ranging from sports, to crafts, to music.

"They actually had an excellent musician come in, we made a drum and he
talked about the language of music," said Grant. "The kids were able to
beat the drum and have an outlet to express their frustrations and their
feelings through music so it was an excellent program."

Koch explained that volunteering for the program is not for everyone, but is a rewarding opportunity.

"We heard four and five-year-olds talk about some pretty heavy things,"
she said. "But just knowing you've made an impact like we did is so
overwhelming and rewarding. I would highly recommend anyone who is
interested to get involved."

Grant explained there was a diverse group of youth in attendance, some
who were comfortable and some who needed more time to open up. For most
of the children however, he said he could definitely see a positive
change in their demeanors by the end of the camp.

The impact of volunteering is even more powerful as a parent, Grant shared.

"Being a father of three, it really got me to think about what would
happen if I were to pass away, you know, I would want someone to be
there for my children," said Grant.